if you have begun here, you have begun at the wrong place. It is a right thing to give or to collect from others for such a cause; but Christ will not accept your money or your service unless you begin by giving him your heart—unless you "first give your own selves to the Lord." He does not ask these others first; he will not, cannot take them. He says, First of all, your heart.

:

“Oh, I have been such a hypocrite!" said a little girl, after hearing some remarks like these. "I have been collecting money to send teachers to tell the heathen about Christ, and I do not love him myself. I thought I was better than the heathen; but I am worse." Her father wept with her, and prayed with her, and besought her to give her heart to Christ. And she did it and instead of giving up her collection, as she had proposed, "that she might not be a hypocrite," she resumed it more eagerly than ever, with a joyful heart, animated with gratitude to Jesus and love to the souls of men. Will it not be a sad thing if the children of India rise up against the children of Scotland and condemn them, saying, "These children sent messengers to us, and we welcomed their message, and gave our hearts to Jesus; they have never given him their own"? Have none of you been sending the gospel to others, without having first received it, and welcomed it, and been blessed by it yourselves? We beseech you, dear young readers, not to do less than you have done for others, but to begin by "first giving your own selves to the Lord."

"FOR CHARLIE'S SAKE."

As a merchant sat writing at his desk, he looked up and saw a man in soldier's clothes. He was going to send him away, when his eyes fell on a paper the man held up to him, and he saw it was the writing of his own dear son. It read,-"Dear father, this man belongs to my own company; he has been wounded, is sick, and is on his way home. Help him all you can, for the sake of your son, Charlie."

He

took him home, gave him Charlie's room, and seat at table, and sent him on his way rejoicing. If our hearts go out so for our children's sake, what shall we not do for Christ's sake?-American.

THE LIGHT SHOWS THE DUST. WHEN the sun's rays are let into a room, clouds of dust will be seen floating in the air which before were unseen, and various stains and spots will appear which before were unnoticed. So it is with the light of the gospel, by which, as the conscience becomes more tender, more vigilant, and better regulated, we shall be given increased insight into our own defects.-Archbishop Whately.

SATURDAY NIGHT.

A TEXT FOR OUR TEACHER.
March 1872.

March 2. The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious.Eccles. x. 12.

9. The Lord stood with me, and strengthened ine; that by me the preaching might be fully known.-2 Tim. iv. 17.

16. That which came out of my lips was right before thee.

-Jer. xvii. 16. 23. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.-Ps. cv. 41. 30. Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.-Ps. iv. 6.

Poor Kitty takes it quietly, while her mother thus lets off a little temper over the broken jug. Mother had gone out of the room, leaving the jug where perhaps it ought not to have been left. Kitty and Dash were frisking together, and between them they knocked over the jug, and broke it. Kitty is frankly telling how it happened, concealing nothing, and asking her mother to forgive her. And Dash looks as if he wanted to share the blame, and to ask for forgiveness. Both are soon forgiven, Kitty being warned to be more careful in future.

gone

One of the devil's commonest temptations with young people is to get them to tell lies in order to conceal a fault. Harry, romping round the room, puts his elbow through the window-glass. The devil whispers, "Say it was a boy who threw a stone from the street." Poor Janet, who has to be a servant, awkwardly dusting the mantel-piece, overturns a little jar, smash upon the floor! The devil whispers, "Say it wasn't you-say that it was the cat-or that you don't know who it was.' It is her first service, and Janet thinks, "What shall I do! What if I lose my place!" But the word comes to her mind, "Lying lips are abomination to the Lord." She tells the whole truth, and her mistress trusts her more than ever.

Always tell the truth, whatever it may cost you. When Satan tempts, say, “Get thee behind me!" Not only is a lie a great sin, but truth is best in the end even for our own interest.

"For liars we can never trust,

Even though they speak the thing that's

true :

And he who does one fault at first
And lies to hide it, makes it two."

Do as Kitty did, if you ever need to be asked, "Who broke the jug?"

One of the young men who had been awakened to concern among the first at these meetings, and who after a time became decided for Christ, naturally became anxious about the spiritual condition of some of his relatives, and urged them to flee to Christ as the only refuge and hope of the sinner. Before going to sea he had got his father and mother to join with him in prayer; and before parting, had urged them not to rest "till they had got a grip of Christ."

After leaving the shore he and the boat's crew were joyously singing, "There is life for a look in the Crucified One." In carrying on the work as fishermen, this lad had occasion to stretch out over the boat's side to catch hold of one of the buoys attached to their lines, and as the sea was somewhat boisterous, the boat gave a sudden lurch, and pitched him overboard. Immediately every effort was made to get hold of him, and as he receded from their grasp two oars were thrown to him; but he suddenly sank.

How consoling to the bereaved relatives, to reflect that their last act in parting was to commit each other to the God of all grace in prayer; and how sustaining must it have been to his fellow-boatmen, suddenly called to witness the death of one of the most healthy and active of their number, to remember that his summons found him and them expressing their faith and hope in the Saviour of sinners, singing, "There is life for a look in the Crucified One." What reader of this incident will not pray that his or her summons may find them departing with the song of a rejoicing faith on their lips?

ALL HIS TROUBLE.

"LORD JESUS, do help me with my arithmetic to-morrow, was the prayer of a little boy in an Indian school. He would go and tell Jesus whenever he was in trouble.

AFRICA.

KAFFRARIA.

The Magic Lantern at Lovedale. THROUGH the k kindness of friends, especially those belonging to Hilltown congregation, Dundee, I have received a magic lantern, with some very good slides. These I have been exhibiting as far as circumstances would permit.

The first place where the exhibition was made was at the Lovedale Institution, where all the pupils, male and female, were assembled one evening to see it. I need scarcely add that they were all greatly delighted with the entertainment.

The people of my out-stations have been no less interested in the exhibition. Whenever I offered to take out the apparatus to any place, I had plenty of volunteers, who cheerfully consented to carry it in their hands for six, eight, or ten miles; and whenever I arrived at my destination, there was always awaiting me a goodly assemblage, both of our members and adherents, as well as of the heathens of the neighbourhood, eager to see the novelty.

Glad at the opportunity which presented itself by so large a concourse of heathens, I did not fail, in various ways, to take advantage of it in speaking to them of the things that belonged to their eternal peace.des are on subjects

of natural

Y-.g., the Falls of the Zambesi, the Whirlpool of Charybdis, Mount Vesuvius, an Alpine avalanche, Windsor Castle, the prairie on fire; others refer to natural objects-e.g., a ship on the sea, a farm house, and running water; others to Bible scenes-e.g., Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Sea of Galilee; and there are twelve slides illustrative of the "Pilgrim's Progress." Many of these illustrations are well fitted to suggest important truths: the hurry exhibited on the burning prairie shadowing forth the danger of delay; the burning mountain, the general conflagration at the end of the world; and those on Bunyan's allegory, the various stages of the Christian in his heavenward journey.

All throughout the exhibition, our people followed me with the deepest interest and most marked attention; treasuring up the remarks made, for future consideration and discussion among themselves.

At the close of the exhibition I usually offered to re-exhibit one or two of the slides which they would select, with the view of discovering in what direction the likings and feelings of the people lay. With one accord both the heathens and the Christians sought for those illustrations that were connected with subjects having a serious import; thus showing either the natural bent of their minds, or their satisfaction with the views; the favourites being, for the most part, those relating to the "Pilgrim's Progress."

As an occasional means of stimulating among this people a desire after knowledge, as a means also of unfolding moral and religious truth in an attractive way, I cannot speak too highly of this apparatus. I mean to use it on every convenient opportunity.-Rev. J. G. Robertson, Lovedale.

THE "LAMP FOR LEBANON."

Up to 16th February, Mr. Young had received £556, 3s. 6d. for the "Lamp." A superintendent, while sending £1, 13s. 6d. from a Sabbath school, tells him, “The enclosed sum was collected at the door, as the scholars retired, in an idol's head, brought from the East by one of the teachers, and by him converted into a missionary-box-the. contributions being dropped in through a hole made in the crown of the head." The poor idol has at last come to be of some use !

Mr. Young hopes our young friends will not be impatient if they do not see their contributions at once acknowledged on the cover. They will all be noticed as quickly as the smallness of the space will permit.

BATAVIA.

New Translations.

By this mail I send you a copy of the Gospels of Luke and John in the Sundanese language; the first translation in that language that is fit for distribution. We are now printing the same Gospels in the Malay language, for distribution in the Molukkos. Also, this translation is ori

"THE SCHOOL HOUSES AND THE WELL."

A Marble Text from Italy. OUR young readers remember about the Two School-houses and the Well, for which they raised, as their New-Year's Offering for 1871, the sum of £434, 19s. 6d. They will be pleased to learn that even before they had begun to collect in Scotland, the Sab. bath-school children of one of our Free Church Stations in Italy had resolved that their weekly contributions during the year should be given to the same object.

On the 11th January the congregation at Genoa, in Italy, held its annual soiree, and the children of the Sabbath school then had the gratification of seeing the result of their efforts for Mr. Narayan Sheshadri's Christian village. It was neither in English | pounds, nor Italian lire, nor Indian rupees that their gift was to be sent to the Indian "Bethel," but in something which the children thought would be an appropriate gift to be sent from the city of marble palaces, in which they reside, and which might be a silent preacher to the Hindoos for many a long year to come.

Our readers will scarcely guess what the gift was. It was a large slab of pure white marble, 5 feet high by 2 feet broad, intended to be placed at the well. Within a neat polished border were engraved, in the characters of the Mahratti language, the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria,

which we find in John iv. 13, 14. Here are the words in English:

66

"Jesus answered and

said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

The children of our Sabbath schools in Scotland have dug the well; and, as was said in one of our previous numbers, the 'cup of cold water given in Christ's name shall in no wise lose its reward." And now we are sure they will feel pleased to know that the little band of children in Genoaonly thirty-have sent such an ornament as will tell all who come to the well of that 'living water" which Christ has to give.

THREE MISSIONARY PRISONERS. THREE Basle missionaries have been prisoners in the hands of the Ashantees since June 1869; Mr. and Mrs. Ramseger from Neufchatel, and Mr. Kühne. The king of the Ashantees declares he never will say a "disrespectful" word against a white person;-but he will not let them go. An Ashantee prince who became a Christian in England, and who is a Wesleyan catechist, is their stanch friend, and has gone to Cape Coast Castle to see what the governor can do to obtain their liberation.